ACC ~ Romans 1 v24

GIVEN OVER TO THE LUST OF THEIR HEARTS. ORIGEN: The details here seem to correspond to the faith of the church, in that for the above-mentioned reasons, for just cause those who in their wickedness suppress the truth revealed by God are abandoned by God, and because they are abandoned they are given over to the desires of their heart. The desires of their heart were that they should disgrace their bodies in uncleanness and abuse and that, with similar lack of discernment toward the worship of God, they should abandon the glory of the incorruptible God for the wicked and base forms of men and animals and think so little of themselves as to live like irrational beasts when in fact they were rational persons.

To those who deny that the good God is also the just judge, we ask what they might say about these words of the apostle: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.”

Therefore Marcion and all those of his school who have sprung forth like the offspring of serpents will not dare to touch the answers to these questions, even with the tips of their fingers. Due to this blunder they have already rejected the Old Testament, where such matters are commonplace. But what good did that do them? For they are no less discomfited by similar problems in the New Testament. But we, who say that the one good and just God of the law and prophets and Gospels is the Father of Christ, give the same explanation in the New as in the Old Testament, calling on him who has placed in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to reveal to us by the Holy Spirit his own offense and the scandal of the apostolic text, by which irresolute minds appear to be offended. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

HANDED OVER TO UNCLEANNESS. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says that because the Gentiles had deified relics and images of things, so as to dishonor the Creator God, they were given over to illusions. They were given over, not so that they could do what they did not want to do, but so that they could carry out exactly what they desired. And this is the goodness of God.

To “hand over” means to permit, not to encourage or to force, so that they were helped by the devil to carry out in practice the things which they conceived in their lusts. For they never thought of doing anything good. Therefore they were handed over to uncleanness that they might willingly damage each other’s bodies with abuse. For even now there are men of this type who are said to dishonor each other’s bodies. When the thought of the mind is wrong, the bodies are said to be dishonored. Is not a stain on the body a sign of sin in the soul? When the body is contaminated, nobody doubts that there is sin in the soul. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

GOD GAVE THEM UP. CHRYSOSTOM: “God gave them up” means simply that he left them to their own concoctions. For as an army commander if forced to retreat abandons his deserting soldiers to the enemy, he does not thereby actively push them into the enemy camp but passively withdraws his own protection over them. In the same way, God left those who were not ready to receive what comes from him but were the first to desert him, even though he had fully done his part. After all, he set before them, as a form of teaching, the world. He gave them reason and an understanding capable of perceiving what they needed to understand. Yet the people of that time did not use any of those things in order to obtain salvation, but rather they perverted what they had received into its opposite. What could God have done about this? Could he have forced them to do what was right? Yes, but that would not have made them virtuous. All he could do then was to leave them to their own devices, which is what he did, so that in that way, if in no other, having tried and discovered the things they lusted after, they might turn away from what was so shameful. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 3.

THE PERMISSION OF GOD. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: In saying that God gave them up to their own lusts, Paul is not claiming that God is the direct cause of this but merely that since God did not bring vengeance on them after much longsuffering and patience, he allowed them to act according to their own desires. He did this, wanting them to be converted to repentance. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

ABANDONED TO THEIR OWN DESIRES. AUGUSTINE: This means that God abandoned them to the desires of their own hearts. For Paul says that they got what they deserved from God. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 5.

SIN COMMITTED WILLINGLY. AUGUSTINE: When the evil will receives power to accomplish its purpose, this comes from the judgment of God, in whom there is no unrighteousness. His punishment is carried out in this way as well as in other ways. It is not less just merely because it is hidden. The wicked man only knows that he is being punished when some manifest penalty makes him feel, against his will, the evil of the sin which he committed willingly. THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 54.

LEFT TO THEMSELVES. AUGUSTINE: Many are left to themselves, to their own hurt. … A man that has asked for great wealth may have received it to his own hurt. While he was without it he had little to fear; as soon as he has possession of it he has become a prey to the stronger. HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 6.8.

ABANDONED BY GOD. THEODORET OF CYR: By “gave them up” Paul means that God permitted this to happen. He simply abandoned them because they had fallen into extreme ungodliness. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

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